Get Your Free 33-page Market Myths Exposed eBook
You've no doubt heard the old mantras "stocks for the long haul," "diversify," "buy and hold."
Investment gurus worldwide repeat them daily ad naseum. But are they really wise investment strategies for ALL markets as advertised? Can any piece of advice that's so simple yet so vague be of use to you as an investor?
Anyone who diversified their portfolios across several stocks, bonds and commodities over the past three years knows that diversification is no foolproof way to profit. The same goes for anyone who decided to buy and hold the S&P index 10 years ago -- they're 20% down even after the recent rally. Many individual stocks and commodities have performed much worse.
During the mania, when the trend was almost always up, virtually anything had a good chance to go higher. Investors ignored real safe-investment advice, because there was always someone lucking into a moon shot during the insanity. The S&P index itself – followed by the NASDAQ and other futures markets – sat at the center of the mania, and simply being in an index back then often outperformed other popular strategies. That's all over with now
No comments:
Post a Comment